This weekend we conducted a culinary experiment of sorts cooking 6 pieces of tri tip in 6 different sauces. Some of which turned out to be real winners, while other may not have been favorites actually none of them turned out badly. Here are the results:

1. Onion puree – worked very well with the meat, but the onion need to cook a bit longer than the meat. Not for next time, start the onion first.

2. Garlic and olive oil mash – pure magic if you love garlic and we do! Note: take care not to burn the garlic, just carmelize it in the pan…lovely!

3. Chili and sugar rub – several smokey spices, chili powder and sugar, made for a nice sweet and smoky result. Thumbs up!

4. Balsamic with a splash of orange juice – this one got watered down a bit too much, but the overall flavor was great.

5. Citrus saute – orange juice, lemon juice and just a touch of chili powder. It reduced down to a nice dark syrup. Very nice, akin to an asian dish.

6. Serrano puree – this was the only one in the bunch that wasn’t quite as edible (unless you have an iron stomach). The heat did not cook out as we had hoped, it was like a volcano. Next time we will roast the peppers before puree.

Combinations for the future? The garlic and citrus chould marry nicely as should the balsamic and onion.

Anyway, it was quite a fun experiment.